Redskins recovery methods aim to reduce injuries
amount of sleep could be the difference between a receiver catching a ball and bringing it down and getting it knocked out of his hands, plus there are more practical elements.
“Our bodies go through a restoration process while we sleep, doing important things like balancing hormones related to tissue growth, stress control, appetite and weight management,” MIT research scientist and Bedgear sleep scientist and biometrics expert Lorenzo Turicchia said. “When a person does not get the right amount of sleep, their bodies will not be able to adequately repair damaged tissues, thus prolonging the healing time. When a player has an injury, the damaged tissues need extra time to repair and heal.”
Redskins players have required plenty of healing. The team led the league with 27 players on injured reserve last season and put 19 players on in 2017 .
Late in the 2017 season, since-released safety D.J. Swearinger criticized some teammates for not taking care of their bodies well enough to limit preventable injuries, which contributed to missing the playoffs.
“You’re not supposed to wait till something happens to you to get treatment,” Swearinger said at the time. “You’re supposed to do stuff to prevent injuries, and I don’t think as a group we did that as much as other teams I’ve been on . ... Some injuries are freak injuries. You can’t control them. But pulls and strains and stuff like that, you can sort of control those things.”
Despite the lengthy injured list, Hess said the team reduced soft-tissue injuries — such as sprains, strains, tendinitis and damage to muscles, tendons and ligaments — by over 50 percent last season. He hopes that progress will continue now that players have a full offseason to take advantage of the recovery room at the practice facility.
After a typical Sunday game, massage therapists and a chiropractor are available for players on Monday and then again Friday. The recovery room is always open and sometimes is the location of meetings to help a player relax and not hunch over a desk while watching film.
The three-step restoration process starts with a minimum of 12 minutes inside a photobiomodulation bed that resembles a tanning booth and uses three types of infrared light to help repair cells all over the body. Hess said it’s good for recovery and studies have shown it improves strength on lifts in the weight room.
The next step is three finger-tingling minutes inside the cryotherapy chamber, where it feels difficult to breathe because the extreme cold tricks the body into rushing blood to major organs to survive. It’s different than getting in a cold tub full of ice or putting an ice bag on because the seconds and minutes after cryotheraphy come with an endorphin release capable of waking up a groggy player.
“Your core body temperature shoots up because of the fight-orflight,”Call said. “You just had everything (go) to your major organs. Now it’s just shooting back out in your bloodstream.”
The coup de grace is up to an hour latched inside one of three Superior float tanks designed to take away all the senses and that can actually make players fall asleep. Hess said it’s supposed to replicate the weightless feeling of a baby in a womb, and it feels similar to floating in the Dead Sea.
“It’s an amazing experience,” Hess said. “Our goal is to get them to that pre-sleep state to shut their body down. It will lower their heart rate. The temperature of the water replicates your body temperature. Really we’re taking all sensation out.”